The ninth episode of the drama series "Chihayafuru: Meguri" (NTV, Wednesdays at 10 PM), starring actress Ami Touma, aired on September 3rd. The episode featured a scene in which Meguru (Touma) of the Umezono Karuta Club called out to her friend Sota (Soma Santoki) during the final qualifying round for the last ticket to the national tournament, which sparked a stir on social media.
◇The following contains spoilers.
In episode 9, Meguru and the Umezono Karuta Club, who lost to Mizusawa in the first round of the Tokyo preliminaries, win the repechage tournament and advance to the final preliminaries to decide the second representative. Meanwhile, Mizusawa, the champion who missed out on the championship, also wins the repechage tournament and advances to the final preliminaries. With the big match three weeks away, the Umezono Karuta Club is making a final push.
During the preliminaries, an old injury to his right hand recurred, and Fuki (Jun Saito Shuhei), an alumnus of Mizusawa, in order to play karuta with his left hand. Meanwhile, Taichi, who was watching Megu's karuta as she accompanied Fuki in her practice, commented, "Aizawa's karuta is unique and interesting." Megu, looking at the cards that have been read and the ones that are remaining, decides which one is most likely to be read next and then makes her move. Taichi gives Megu some advice, saying, "Why don't you try changing the way you think about karuta a little?"
On the day of the final qualifying round, Megur and Umezono compete against Kitao, Mizusawa, and Adore in a match for the final ticket to the national tournament... and so it unfolds.
In the story, Umezono loses to Adore in the first match and is forced to the brink of defeat. Realizing that it's not as easy as winning with an improvised left hand, Fuki asks Kusata to take his place, and Kusata takes his place in the match against Kitao. Despite fighting well, Kusata and Chieri (Arashi Rina) lose consecutively, but Meguru pats Kusata on the back as he slumps, saying, "Leave the rest to me."
With Taichi's advice to "prioritize the cards you aim for" in mind, Meguru takes on Kitao's vice captain Kuroda (Yuki Tachibana) and achieves a stunning victory. Following Meguru, Umezono also defeats Yakumo (Aito Sakamoto) and Haruma (Yoshihito Takamura), resulting in a major upset victory over Kitao.
On social media, many people were moved by Meguru's reliable words to Kusata. Comments such as "Meguru is so cool," "How reliable!", "He's so cool I'm in love with him," and "I never thought the day would come when I'd hear Meguru say, 'Leave the rest to me...'" were posted, attracting a lot of attention.
